You know all those cookie-cutters that are a jumble at the bottom of your kitchen drawer? Well, reach way down and grab a handful because we’re going to put them to good use.

Cookie-cutters are great for transforming ordinary rolled-out cookies into fun shapes, but their usefulness goes way beyond the obvious. I use cookie-cutters for a wide variety of kitchen duties and whenever I let my kids cut their food into fun shapes, they’ll eat just about anything.

Here are five ways you can use cookie-cutters to make cooking and eating a whole lot more fun:

1. Hole Foods — Use a heart, star or any shape you prefer to cut the center out of sliced bread and make an egg in the hole (try Ree Drummond’s recipe). Last week my daughter had Egg in the Dog!

2. Pancake Zoo — Place a greased cookie-cutter in a saute pan over low heat and fill it with pancake batter. Use tongs to remove the hot cookie-cutter and gently flip the pancake until it’s cooked through. I like making a pancake zoo, using a variety of animal shapes.

3. Meet Your Veggies — If your little one isn’t a fan of fruits or vegetables, cutting the food into unique shapes can be a game-changer.

4. Ooh-La-La! — Cut bread into various shapes and make French toast that’s anything but ordinary.

5. Cheese, Please — My daughter wouldn’t eat white cheese for the longest time (don’t ask) until I started cutting it into her favorite animal shapes.

Here are a few of my favorite cutters that we use in my house week in and week out:

Holiday: We make Chocolate Orange Snaps using these cutters and give them out as holiday gifts every year.

Animal Shapes: Use them to cut out watermelon, jicama, bell peppers, apple slices and more.

Catherine McCord is a food blogger and mother of two living in Los Angeles. Her recipes and tips for nutritious and easy family eating are featured daily on her blog, Weelicious.com, and in her new cookbook Weelicious: One Family. One Meal. Catherine’s advice and recipes can often be seen on Babble.com, Huffington Post, Celebrity Babies, Parents, Parenting and more.